We’re incredibly excited to bring you a cover reveal for THE RED SCHOLAR’S WAKE, a stunning sapphic space opera from Hugo Award-nominated author, Aliette de Bodard!

Before we show you the cover in full, here’s a bit more about the book:

Xích Si: bot maker, data analyst, mother, scavenger. But those days are over now-her ship has just been captured by the Red Banner pirate fleet, famous for their double-dealing and cruelty. Xích Si expects to be tortured to death-only for the pirates’ enigmatic leader, Rice Fish, to arrive with a different and shocking proposition: an arranged marriage between Xích Si and herself. 

Rice Fish: sentient ship, leader of the infamous Red Banner pirate fleet, wife of the Red Scholar. Or at least, she was the latter before her wife died under suspicious circumstances. Now isolated and alone, Rice Fish wants Xích Si’s help to find out who struck against them and why. Marrying Xích Si means Rice Fish can offer Xích Si protection, in exchange for Xích Si’s technical fluency: a business arrangement with nothing more to it. 

But as the investigation goes on, Rice Fish and Xích Si find themselves falling for each other. As the interstellar war against piracy intensifies and the five fleets start fighting each other, they will have to make a stand-and to decide what kind of future they have together…

An exciting space opera and a beautiful romance, from an exceptional SF author.

Praise for The Red Scholar’s Wake: ‘LESBIAN SPACE PIRATES. Enough said.‘ Katee Robert, NYT bestselling author of NEON GODS

And now without further ado, here’s the cover:

Cover artist: Alyssa Winans 

How vibrant and beautiful is that artwork?! It’s simply stunning.

Here’s a few words from Aliette:

“I was thrilled to be working again with Alyssa Winans, who’s doing absolutely gorgeous work (she did the cover of my novella Fireheart Tiger). I love the details she’s woven into this: how Rice Fish, pirate leader and sentient spaceship, has a sweep of hair that turns into stars and mirrors the shadows on the floor; how Xích Si, the pragmatic engineer, has utilitarian clothes; how the patterns on the floor and the window are reminiscent of traditional art–and the way those two are standing close to each other, ready to take on an entire fleet of spaceships!

This is a book that means a lot to me–a book I wrote during the dark times of my divorce and the first year of the pandemic, that goes some dark places but ultimately offers comfort; a sapphic book of second chances and with a happy ever after ending. I hope people will enjoy it.”

The Red Scholar’s Wake is due to be released 24th November 2022 but you can pre-order HERE